On our 2011 trip to Scotland David and I stopped by Glendronach distillery on a whim, fell in love with their whisky, and now it's one of the top whiskies we sell at K&L. This year's version of that was Glen Garioch distillery in Oldmeldrum. An old-fashioned, picturesque distillery located in the center of the quaint village, it's part of the Morrison-Bowmore portfolio. Glen Garioch's whisky is in the hands of former Ardbeg super star Rachel Barrie, who jumped ship to Bowmore last year. When we told Rachel how much we enjoyed our visit to Oldmeldrum, Rachel was so overjoyed we had that she ran to the back to grab a cask sample she had picked out for Bowmore recently, a 1998 single cask aged in a hogshead that had previously held peated whisky. The distillery had dabbled in the peated Highland style before 1994, but the whisky produced today is completely without smoke. This very special cask has all the beautiful sweet grains we love about the malt with just a whisper of peat in the background. The palate is elegant and lean, but the fruit and vanilla is concentrated in its core. The whisky tastes like the town of Oldmeldrum--old world, country, rustic and down-home. That's terroir in whisky. (David Drisoll, K&L Spirits buyer)